Firebird 101: Solo Wizard Greater Rifts

I am going to have to try out bane of the trapped now. But I need convincing, why efficacious toxin over bane of the powerful?

Would it also be a good idea to put in Wreath of Lightning on my follower to add more elemental exposure? Does that work? I am using fire spells and cold damage on my serpent sparker for 10% extra damage.

@DontUseMyName: Of course it triggers it, but you only have fire spells . thats only 5 percent
if you had any damagetype on your weapon but not fire you would gain 5% from that and 5% from your fire spells . thats a guaranteed 10% on every target (guarnteed means : 100% uptime)

I have a questions to ask Jaetch (and anybody else of course).

What gem to put in helm in combination with evocation? (you're missing that in your guide)

DIamong + Evocation

Amethyst + Evocation

From were i stand , having evocation only for blackhole seems a little bit wasted (it would be an awesome passive on a hellfire amulet though)

so put up a diamond in helm ? - its like 20 vs 31% cdr

Would you even stack cooldownreduction on gear if you chose to use evocation?

At the moment im in favour of glasscannon (instead of evocation) + force armor because it makes sense, as long as the -10% all res does not take you in the area where you take more damage as your maximum hp.so you get one shotted. It has a somewhat synergy.

I would like to add Overwhelming Desire http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/overwhelming-desire-1I0LYo as a discussion point for a follower slot. It does not proc very often, but when it procs it adds a reasonable amount of extra damage for that time (it does not work on rift guardians though). Since we already excel in clearing aoe, I think its a reasonable alternative to Ess of Johan.

Has anyone toyed with Archon - Combustion? I ran it last in my last few runs last night in place of Hydra and set new personal record. It seemed to be pretty solid if used properly.

Basically, kite elite pack forward into another pack, pop Archon and watch the buff stack to 15-20+ within seconds from the kited trash and elite dying off. That makes crushing the new elite pack / trash a breeze - the FB DoT alone is vicious with buff. With Evocation and a touch of CDR on gear the CD isn't bad, and I found it a good balance of kite-kite-kite-bigwipe-kite-kite-kite. Comes in handy as "oh *@)!" button or when low on AP. Biggest problem is no Teleport for duration, but things died so quickly even on high 30s GRs it wasn't a problem.

Makes me want to swap some pieces around to don my 15-second Swami, getting a mini Power Pylon every 90 seconds or so.

I think it could be a cool alternative for lower grifts, but for 40+ I don't see the Combustion Archon as a solid alternative. Almost everything is going to oneshoot you, and archon is far more too static without the teleport. And you will have to stop to kill things ; with hydra + Blackhole, you just run, don't have to stop.

Also the sustained DPS on boss rift will be very low, compared to an hydra setup.

6. Hydra positioning just involves placing it a distance away from the target to maximize Zei's output. That's all. It's incredibly easy to set up, the trail stacks on top of one another, and you can also recast Hydra to bypass its APS.

I had NO idea Hydra damage was increased by Zei's. I have been placing the Hydra as close as posssible to the mob so the fire always nailed him. It's worth it to recast Hydra every time he shoots to reset the APS then, as well?

6. Hydra positioning just involves placing it a distance away from the target to maximize Zei's output. That's all. It's incredibly easy to set up, the trail stacks on top of one another, and you can also recast Hydra to bypass its APS.

I had NO idea Hydra damage was increased by Zei's. I have been placing the Hydra as close as posssible to the mob so the fire always nailed him. It's worth it to recast Hydra every time he shoots to reset the APS then, as well?

Boy, was I doing it wrong.

You would think that hydra damage would be based on how far away you are from the monster, not how far the hydra is. Has this been tested?

I like beating dead horses... So, in my experience with g38/39 my main problem has been getting the elites to follow me while i go grab more, *especially* things like bowmen ect. So my question is, you say that BotT is preferable to BoP always. But to activate it your follower has to slow the mobs you're trying to kite, which as you pointed out with Mirror Images seems counter productive.

I'm going to start leveling up my trapped gem and test it out myself now, but I'd still like to hear how you overcome the always slowed mobs... Or do they die faster now so it isn't as much of a problem maybe? Thanks

I like beating dead horses... So, in my experience with g38/39 my main problem has been getting the elites to follow me while i go grab more, *especially* things like bowmen ect. So my question is, you say that BotT is preferable to BoP always. But to activate it your follower has to slow the mobs you're trying to kite, which as you pointed out with Mirror Images seems counter productive.

I'm going to start leveling up my trapped gem and test it out myself now, but I'd still like to hear how you overcome the always slowed mobs... Or do they die faster now so it isn't as much of a problem maybe? Thanks

I really need to make a video of this one of these days. Firebird is a true L2P kind of build. Sometimes it's just better to see it in action. You have to adapt to everything that's happening on your screen and your movements will have to match up with what you're facing. You can't just sprint forward 100% of the time. Sometimes you do have to circle around. Sometimes you have to zigzag forward. Sometimes you have to pull things ahead to bring back to stragglers, etc.

I really need to make a video of this one of these days. Firebird is a true L2P kind of build. Sometimes it's just better to see it in action.

Couple questions:

Does placing Hydra further away from the target increase Hydra damage (a la Zei's?)
Why do I see (presumably) solo wizards using Conflagerate? As far as I know, it does not affect blizzard, Hydra, OR Firebird DoT.
What do you think of Dominance as a Passive?

I really need to make a video of this one of these days. Firebird is a true L2P kind of build. Sometimes it's just better to see it in action.

Couple questions:

Does placing Hydra further away from the target increase Hydra damage (a la Zei's?)
Why do I see (presumably) solo wizards using Conflagerate? As far as I know, it does not affect blizzard, Hydra, OR Firebird DoT.
What do you think of Dominance as a Passive?

Interesting question, I was wondering about Conflagerate as well. It would be awesome if it placed a sort of debuff on the minion.

I have these three weapons to my disposal. Now, ignore the comparisons (because I just noticed the game compares 1h to 2h without taking out the off-hand contribution and I'm too lazy to take new screenshots :P), the Furnace is kind of shit but I always read people talking about how only the damage range matters, so I decided to keep it. A while after, Maximus dropped (dem rolls). Either way, that would break my 6-Firebird (not really, I have the pants, but that would make me get rid of my Mr. Yan, and I feel that mobility is really good in higher GR). Then the Serpent Sparker dropped. I have one Ralamanalamnalnamlni's Gift and I don't know whether I should use it on Maximus, Sparker or keep it for another non-shit Furnace. Any thoughts?

Use the Furnace. No question. How is that Furnace bad? It's far better than the vast majority of Furnaces out there, including mine and my clan mate Void's (who's currently #1 on the US solo wizard leaderboard at 42). Use Firebird Pants. Hexing Pants do not dynamically update the Firebird DoT damage, only the fire spell damage you deal + Hydra.

@Conflagration passive - Works for general fire spells, but the debuff is not accounted for when the Firebird DoT kicks in so it's relatively useless.

@Hydra + Zei's - Both Hydra and Sentries are stationary pets, thus they are considered standalone damage sources. Placing them further from the target will ramp up the damage they deal. Damage changes dynamically, so if the target moves closer, the damage will automatically decrease and you'll have to reposition the Hydra.

I am going to have to try out bane of the trapped now. But I need convincing, why efficacious toxin over bane of the powerful?

Would it also be a good idea to put in Wreath of Lightning on my follower to add more elemental exposure? Does that work? I am using fire spells and cold damage on my serpent sparker for 10% extra damage.

Use the Furnace. No question. How is that Furnace bad? It's far better than the vast majority of Furnaces out there, including mine and my clan mate Void's (who's currently #1 on the US solo wizard leaderboard at 42). Use Firebird Pants. Hexing Pants do not dynamically update the Firebird DoT damage, only the fire spell damage you deal + Hydra.

Even though it's a vitality furnace? Sure it's very well rolled, but he loses out on 1000-1100 int, which seems like an awful lot to me.

Oh, whoops, didn't see it was vitality. Okay, I would use it once it's rolled to 10%, but not necessary others. If it's rolled to 10%, the ~150 or so weapon damage can make up for some of the intelligence loss. I would also be able to remove a lesser vitality roll on gear for something more DPS-oriented, like skill bonus.

Experiment with it. And if you have a Sunkeeper, use that, too. I've done 39 and 40 with a Sunkeeper and one of my clan mates yesterday finished his own GR40 with a Sunkeeper.